Letters from Frederick Warren Muir, 1914-1915 - Part 4

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we marched past Sir George a few
days back. I suppose you have
read his speech in the papers but
in case you have not I am
sending a copy of the Cairo paper
with it in. I fear, however, that
Sir George borrowed from the speech
which Napoleon made to his
soldiers in almost this same spot.
In the course of his speech he
said "I have seen many
Australians in my time but you
are the limit". We are still
wondering what he really meant
by this. He has promised us
that we will get the Sultan's
accession medal as we formed
the British Army of Occupation in
Egypt at the time of the Accession
3.
I have just come back from a
walk round the Pyramids Sphinx.
I scaled the outside of the big
Pyramid & found it a pretty
tough climb. The Pyramid is
about 500 feet high but by the
time you get to the top is seems
like 2 or 3 miles. The Pyramids
& Sphinx are exceedingly interesting
The ruins of temples & cities stretch
for miles around around here but
are only partially excavated as
yet. The city here must have
looked very beautiful in its prime
The two big pyramids were faced
with alabaster the smaller one
with red granite. The Temple of
the Sphinx is in a state of
excellent preservation & is magnificently

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built of blocks of red granite & floored
in parts with alabaster. There is a
niche in one of the walls where the
High Priest of the Sphinx used to
worship the sun. There are tombs
everywhere, one almost falls into them
when walking among the ruins.
Some of them are sheer shafts going
down 100 or 150 feet into the sandstone.
The tombs of the Pharaohs are
carved out of the rocky hill side
& branch into innumerable passages.
Excavations are still being carried
out here & over the better part of
several acres, the ruins of tombs
& temples are being slowly recovered
from the sand. It is very
impressive to walk through the narrow
streets of this city of the dead which

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has lain silent under the sands for
so long & see the works & stately
building erected oved 5000 years
ago. I have got hold of several pieces
of pottery dug up from these ruins
& will send them home shortly.
We are still working hard
but are hampered by the ubiquitous
sand. Our battalion, has been
reorganised during the last few days
& we are now incorporated with "D"
Company, so you will have to put this
on my letters in place of "E" Company,
which now no longer exists. We
hear many rumours of what we
are going to do in the future &
expect shortly to move to the Suez
Canal but this is not to be relied on

6
I have only had three letters from you
up to the present which I got at Port Said
& none from anyone else so I presume
there are a good few letters waiting
for me somewhere. We hoped to get
a mail for Xmas or New Year but
were disappointed. A few stray letters
creep into camp now & again but the
bulk of our mail seems to be mislaid
somewhere. We hear rumours that the
second contingent is on its way & that
a third is forming but cannot get any
reliable news of what is happening at
home.
We are getting quite civilized
in this Camp now. We have named
all our streets & roads; the main
road is called Canberra Road.
We have also a boxing stadium
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& a picture show & we have
lectures & concerts in the Y.M.C.A.
rooms. There is a lecture tomorrow,
night by the Curator of the Cairo
museum on "the Pyramids" which
should prove interesting. We rather
lack reading matter however; books
are very dear here owing to the high
duty. The ordinary 6^d book or magazine
costs 1/- & the 1/- books costs 2/-.
We get our washing done by a
contractor; we pay him 5^d a week
for as much laundry as we care
to send. This is rather cheaper
than Sydney although we do not get
it all back. We are getting a
complete new issue of uniform
shortly & are hoping that is to be
something more presentable than the

8.

present one. We are quite settled
down here & will be sorry when aa
we have to leave again for we are
beginning to realise the fascination of
Egypt & Cairo. I must knock off now
till next mail day as I am
running short of news.
Best wishes to all Unanderra
Yours affectionately
Fred.

Sunday, 10 January 1915.
Dear Mum,
I was very pleased to get a few letters the other
day. I got one from you dated 7^th Decr & also a Xmas
Card. I also got a letter card from Aunt Minnie
& a letter from Aunt Em. This was the first mail we
have received since we have been but there are
still a lot of our letters to come back from England
I see by the local paper that the Australian Government
had stopped the export of all newspapers. This accounts
for the fact that we have not been receiving any
but we will look forward to getting some now that
the prohibition has been lifted.
We are getting our Xmas by instalments we
received some Xmas puddings today which were
bought with the "Daily News" Pudding Fund. They were
very tasty & most acceptable. The Queensland Battalion
celebrated their Xmas yesterday they received ₤260 which
had been collected in Queensland & which they only
received the other day. We understand that the
there is some presents & cards from Australia on
the way also so we look forward to another
celebration in the near future
we have been experiencing some

nasty weather the last few days. It has been so cold at
night that we have been obliged to put on our
overcoats & extra clothes, a strong wind has been
blowing in the day time & we have had to march
through a thick sandstorm & arrived home
smothered in sand & dust. On Friday night it
broke the record by raining but only a few points
fell.
Our companies have been shuffled round again
we are now "B" Company & hope that this will be
permanent. We have had quite a number of
visitors out here to-day but of course nothing like the
number that used to come out to Kensington. The
majority of the visitors are French residents of Cairo
I have not much news this time as we are properly
settled down here now & things are fairly uneventful.
Best wishes to all,
Yours affectionately
Fred.

Mena Camp
17.1.15
Dear mum,
We seemed to have at last
established a regular communication
with Australia as we received another
large mail this week. We have also
received all our November letters which
have been to England & back. I got several
letters from you also some papers
& some clippings which were very
acceptable & also an Xmas card from
the children. I also got letters from
Uncle Charlie, Mrs. W.V. Brown &
Aunt Ada, in all I have now
received between 30 & 40 letters & cards
& so have my work cut out to answer
them. Carrie Neaves sent a Xmas
Card labelled "To Dear Fred."

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Aunt Ada sent along a couple of
handkerchiefs which were most acceptable
as I only had one left; the laundry
having accounted for the rest.
Our hours of parade have been
changed again we now march out
at 9 o' clock & return at 5 p.m., This
means more work but we get a half
holiday on Saturday. We have also
a new parade ground which is about
5 miles miles from the camp in the
direction of the Sakkarah Pyramids.
It is interesting to see here how the
cultivation comes out in broad sweeps
to be limits of the Nile overflow & then
ends abruptly on the deserts edge.
Otherwise the scenery is just the same
as every where else around here -
brown sandhills & blue sky. 

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Part of our march lies through the
native village of Kapi Ramiti. There
are some very fine houses in this
village but the back parts are
dirty & squalid. The domestic animals -
pigs, goats, fowls & donkeys frequent the
huts in perfect amity of the natives.
The number of children is perfectly
amazing; swarms of them assemble
every day to watch us go through &
call out "Saidi" (good-day) and ask
for "Backsheesh".
We had a very interesting
lecture on Monday night by Mr
Imbell B.A. on the Pyramids & he is
going to give another one shortly. There
was also a lecture by one of the
Melbourne Chaplains the other night in
the Y.M.C.A entitled "A Pilgrimage"

to Mecca. we have also had a
couple of very fair concerts as there
are some very good singers here.
We had an issue of Australian
butter the other day which was very
agreeable after the native butter which
is rather rank. This butter is made
from the milk of the water buffalo
(which pass as cows here) & is generally
 pure white being both unsalted
& uncoloured being more like
clotted cream than butter.
One of the Australian hospital
ships is in harbour at Alexandrea &
about 160 of the nurses paid this
camp a visit yesterday. I see
by one of the papers that there has
been a rumour that we have
already been in action, but of